By Armstrong Vaz
Doha (Qatar), Dec 18 (IANS): Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has stressed that Sunday's FIFA World Cup final against champions France would see a 'collective effort, not individual' one and believes his team is well prepared for the title clash at Lusail Stadium.
"Tomorrow it's Argentina against France, not Lionel Messi against Kylian Mbappe. Every player will have a chance to leave a mark," Scaloni told reporters on Saturday, when asked whether the duel is between top stars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
"We have our game plan, which is very important for us. We know how we have to attack; we know their strengths. We will try to avoid the shoot-out but if it come to this, we will try to choose the best penalty takers," he said.
"We have our weapons, our strengths and the match will be defined by our players, by every player. Not only with those two players.
"We hope that he can lift the trophy in his last match,' Scaloni said about Messi, who will probably play his final World Cup game.
Messi, 35, is to set for a record tournament appearance as the final will be his 26th World Cup game, one more than German Lothar Matthäus. Like France, Argentina will be bidding for a third title.
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni on his emotions during the World Cup: "The emotions, this is part of our culture, of everything that we live in Argentina, everything that is around us, the excitement from our people. You get the images from social media and you get emotional. How can you not get emotional? In the end football is a sport and in Argentina, although it is hard to understand, it is more than a sport for us and people are happy."
Scaloni said Argentina has the best fans in the world, and he is not wrong with some 40,000 having decened in Qatar and looking for match tickets.
"Being able to make them happy is something wonderful and amazing. The greatest excitement is to see your fans, your people getting excited. This is really emotional and of course we feel this as human being because we are on that side. It is completely normal to feel this way."
Scaloni on the Polish referee Szymon Marciniak taking charge of the World Cup final: "He was in the match against Australia and he did a very good job. Now with the VAR, we have many cameras available so I would say that this won't be detrimental to us and we should let them do their own work."